Questions over efforts to revive Michael Jackson

The Jackson family attorney has raised questions about the way Michael Jackson's personal physician attempted to revive him after the pop star was stricken at his Holmby Hills home.

According to a 911 call made from the house after Jackson collapsed, an unidentified man said that Jackson's "personal doctor" was performing CPR on the pop star on his bed.

On the "Today" show, Jackson family attorney L. Londell McMillan said he was concerned about the decision to perform CPR on Jackson on a bed rather than on a firmer flat surface.

Stephen Kishineff, a spokesman for the American Heart Assn., said performing CPR on a hard surface is one of the most vital components to successful chest compressions.

“The bed is the absolute worst place to perform CPR, unless you have a backboard underneath the patient,” Kishineff said.

 One of the goals of CPR is to compress the chest to get blood pumping through the heart again. “If you are placing the chest on a soft mattress, really you are just pushing the patient down and bouncing him in the mattress,” Kishineff said.

If CPR is being performed at home, moving the patient from a bed to a floor, even a carpeted floor, helps increase the percentage of blood flow to organs and to the heart, he said. As long as trauma is not suspected, moving the patient to the floor is best.

 “A mattress is not ideal,” Kishineff said.

The doctor who treated Jackson the day he died defended himself Sunday. Dr. Conrad Murray, through his lawyer, denied reports that he had injected Jackson with powerful painkillers before his death.

"There was no Demerol. No OxyContin," said Murray's attorney, Edward Chernoff.

The lawyer, who was present during Murray's three-hour interview with Los Angeles Police Department detectives Saturday, said Jackson was already unconscious when the doctor "fortuitously" entered the bedroom of the performer's mansion.

The 50-year-old pop star "wasn't breathing. He checked for a pulse. There was a weak pulse in his femoral artery. He started administering CPR," said Chernoff, a Houston criminal defense attorney.

-- Nicole Santa Cruz

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Comments

[Liz]

Any person in healthcare knows that you must perform CPR on a flat surface "not on a bed" what kind of doctor does that? a doctor that doesn't know what his doing!!!

[Amy]

BLAH-BLAH-BLAH!!! MOVE ON ALREADY!!!

[Dan]

This dorcotr will get arrested pretty soon. Wait and see. either way, this is the end of his career.

[Cool Breeze]

This doctor is a loser. Of course, he will say Michael had a pulse when he found him. What else will he say? He won't admit that he gave him narcotics either. What kind of doctor would give CPR on a mattress?

[trice]

I am not a doctor but have taken cpr and first aid several times because I work with children. The number one rule is to have the person on a hard surface. They never have annie on a soft surface when teaching cpr. And this so called doctor should be called on that if nothing else. And what about all the lawsuits that he already has out ? Hello someone please read between the lines. MJ may still be here if it were not for his doctors negligence. And whts the reason he was running from the press again? Ran so fast he left his car!

[theidahokid]

Hey! he was a doctor to the stars, he wasn't expected to know CPR, just show up with his prescription pad.

[paul]

Sounds like yet more "Enquirer" rumor to me. Judgement should be suspended until the final reports are released. That's why we have actual professional investigators.

[Donna Borrell]

if he has a heart beat why would you give him CPR. Wouldn't it be better to support his breathing at this point and call 911 ASAP. What kind of Doctor was he anyway?

[Spector]

Well this sort of begs the question -- why would one do chest compressions on a man who allegedly had a pulse? If he was not breathing then I'd assume one would perform artificial respiration, but why chest compressions, unless his heart began fibrillating at some point during the overall process.

The fact is the man was an anoerectic who had starved himself to death. His electrolytes were probably so abnormal, then adding the narcotics on top of it, that he had a fatal arrhythmia. I don't think any amount of CPR could compensate for such an insult to the heart.

The bigger question is how long did he collapse before CPR was started? Was he already brain dead by then? Were his pupils dilated and fixed? No one has yet reported anything about this. The family wants somone to blame, but you cant revive a long-dead corpse, soft bed or no soft bed.

If his family cared so much they should have had him committed to an insane asylum and had him forced fed and detoxed, long prior. He obviously was seriously mentally ill and a danger to himself. When you are wealthy you are simply deemed an eccentric artist. Anyone else, however, would have been declared a madman or a drug addict killing himself with narcotic pain meds.

Yeah, MJ's family and friends sure did care about him.

[JewelD]

And Murray was supposedly a cardiologist (!?)

Pretty strange that a cardiologist didn't move MJ to the floor, if in fact he was doing CPR.

Letting slip that MJ was on the bed, as well as checking for a pulse on the femoral artery (!) sounds like he outed himself - MJ was already long gone when Murray called 911.

Poor MJ. What a sad ending.

[Craig]

Conrad Murray was hired by the London concert promoter only about ten days before Michael Jackson died. Jackson appeared to be in such a bad physical state that this untimely ending to his life was inevitable.

It is a premature to lay blame on Dr. Murray when Jackson's inner circle knew and apparently did nothing to stop this downward spiral. He is simply an easy scapegoat for all the parasites and money grubbers who fed off Michael Jackson all these years.

This does not even take into account that the 911 call may have not been accurate as to the timeline of events or the actions taken by Dr. Murray. A 911 caller reacting to a code arrest may not be the most reliable reporter of information.

Inital reports had Dr. Murray injecting Jackson with Demerol prior to his death, while Dr. Murray denies giving any painkillers. He is entitled to the benefit of the doubt that he not only did nothing to contribute to Jackson's death but also did everything in his power to save him. Far from being the bad guy in all this, he might have been only person in the house that actually cared about Jackson's health and well-being.

[mitesh]

i blieve the jackson family are blowing the situation out of proporation, many tons of thousands die from heart seizures even after attempts of CRP. One question to could raise why did the doctor proform this on the bed we will not know until the doctor has his voice heard. I believe MJ should be put to rest and everyone should pay there respects it should be a public funeral he was a geniene genrous man who went through things that other celebrities would not be able to face or come through the other side.
Thank You

[J. Tyler Ballance]

When I heard the recording of the 911 call and the voice of the member of Jackson's staff as he said that Jackson wasn't breathing, and was on the bed; the first thought that I had, emerged from my EMT training, and that was that he should get Michael on the floor and begin CPR. When the staff member mentioned that a doctor was already present, you can hear the 911 operator defer to the physician's higher medical authority, but it must have puzzled the 911 operator and every other person on the planet who has had CPR training, why the "physician" left Jackson on the bed?

Perhaps one positive aspect that can emerge from this tragedy will be that many more citizens will learn and practice correct CPR procedures.

For the readers: You can usually get CPR certified at your local volunteer rescue squad, at the Red Cross and at many local hospitals and clinics. I would like to see all of our national service clubs, such as KIWANIS, Rotary, Lions, etc. take on the goal of having every member get CPR certified, and thereby promote CPR certification within their local communities.

[Jake T]

The doctor's academic credentials are unimpressive, he was AWOL in the hours after his patient's death, and all reports indicate he made mistakes in his CPR protocol that any Red Cross trained first-aider would have caught.

None of this is jailworthy, but I would hope that the licensing board will take appropriate action to review his performance and pull his certification, if appropriate.

[Rich]

If I recall my CPR training, you don't administer CPR to someone with a pulse.

[Bob McNolty]

He's dead either way you look at it, criticizing a doctor for making a decision after the fact makes no sense. If I go comatose/dead and my doctor gives me CPR on a bed instead of a flat surface and I don't end up being resuscitated, I'm not going to come back from the dead pissed about it. Let the dead man die. R.I.P.

[Mitzi Lowery]

What Doctor doesn't know how to perform cpr? I am a nurse and the Doctor calls the shots in a code situation. Who doesn't Dial 911. In a code situation even when the patient is in the hospital you call for help, and more hands on deck. There is also something called reversal agents like Narcan you can give in case of narcotic overdose that can bring someone around quickly. Where was your narcan Dr. Murray?

[Eve]

Dr. Murray’s lawyer keeps changing his story. This morning, he told the CBS “Early Show” that Michael was "in relatively good health."

During that same interview, he said that because Jackson was so frail, Murray "administered CPR with his hand behind his back to provide the necessary support."

In addition, he told NBC “Dateline” that "he was a frail man, he didn't like to drink or eat. He wasn't exactly healthy to begin with."

One cannot be in relatively good health and frail at the same time. Normally persons of interest are viewed suspiciously if they change their stories; Dr. Murray’s lawyer seems to be doing so for him. Secondly, Dr. Murray was hired by AEG Live to monitor Jackson’s health yet did not deem it necessary to inform them that Michael “wasn’t exactly healthy” nor eating and drinking enough to maintain his strength during his 50 concert tour.

This all smells very fishy....

[Christine Lyons]

All due respect to Michael Jackson's memory (may he rest in peace) Why in the world was the doctor (supposedly a cardiologist) checking a FEMORAL ARTERY????
The carotid is what you check at the neck...Not the groin where the femoral arterty is...
I think this doctor had a relationship with MJ which is why he was down there...just saying...